This Huffington Post article: Understanding Alzheimer’s: 8 Common Myths Debunked by Marguerite Manteau-Rao was recently brought into one of our family caregiver support groups. It is a quick, succinct read that may help some people to feel a bit more connected to their loved one.
From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marguerite-manteaurao/alzheimers_b_833644.html
A new Australian study coming from The Arts Health Institute looks at the impact of humor therapy on mood, agitation, behavioral disturbances and social engagement in dementia patients. The SMILE study spanned 36 Australian assisted living communities and found a 20 percent reduction in agitation – results equal to that of drug therapies. This study is slated for presentation at Australia’s National Dementia Research Forum this week.
The Arts Health Institute is part of The Dementia Collaborative Research Centers funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.
Cornell University researchers may have solved a 100-year puzzle: How to safely open and close the blood-brain barrier so that therapies to treat Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and cancers of the central nervous system might effectively be delivered.
- ScienceDaily – Sep. 13, 2011
This research was performed on mice; however, researchers have already found that humans like mice produce a molecule called adenosine and findings show that adenocine receptors can be activated to open and close the blood-brain barrier in both mice as well as humans. This means drug therapies, which currently are blocked on a molecular level by the blood-brain barrier, could be allowed to pass through increasing their effectiveness.
Adenosine has previously been FDA-approved for use in humans (currently for heart imaging). Could this provide a shortcut for researchers and drug developers? It will be interesting to see.
Read the Science Daily article here: Breaching the blood-brain barrier: Finding may permit drug delivery to the brain for Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis and brain cancers.
Today, I learned that the ABC game game show, Wipeout is a major hit among several of the residents in one San Francisco assisted living dementia community. It is 8:30 PM and most residents are either already in or on their way to bed. It is a time so quiet in most assisted living communities that one might think the building has been evacuated. I am here late checking on a resident who has trouble sleeping through the night; keeping her up past 9:00 PM helps to minimize late-night wandering which is often accompanied by heightened confusion and paranoid delusions. Continue reading
